Individual Reputation Research Articles

Group-based reputational incentives can blunt sensitivity to societal harms and benefits.

People's concern with maintaining their individual reputation powerfully drives judgment and decision making. But humans also identify strongly with groups. Concerns about group-based reputation may similarly shape people's psychology, perhaps especially in contexts where shifts in group reputation can have strategic consequences. Do individuals allow their concern with their group's reputation to shape their reactions to even large-scale societal suffering versus benefits? Examining both affective responses and financially incentivized behavior of partisans in the United States, five preregistered experiments (N = 7,534) demonstrate that group-based reputational incentives can weaken-and sometimes nearly eliminate-affective differentiation between present-term societal harms and benefits. This can occur even when these societal harms and benefits are substantial-including economic devastation and national security threats-and when the consequences impact ingroup members. Individuals' sensitivity to group-based reputation can even cause them to divert resources from more effective to less effective charities. We provide evidence that partisans care about group-based reputation in part because it holds strategic value, positioning their group to improve its standing vis-a-vis the outgroup. By allowing group-based reputational incentives to reduce their sensitivity to societal outcomes, partisans may play into the other side's cynical narratives about their disregard for human suffering, damaging bridges to cooperation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Reputation-based disconnection-reconnection mechanism in Prisoner's Dilemma Game within dynamic networks

Individual reputation significantly influences players’ decision-making. Players tend to disconnect from neighbors with lower reputations so as to mitigate potential losses in the game. Therefore, it is crucial and meaningful to explore how to apply reputation in the game to enhance cooperation. In this study, we propose a reputation-based evolution mechanism in the Prisoner's Dilemma Game (PDG) within dynamic complex networks, including square lattices and small-world networks. We introduce the reputation factor α and the selection intensity σ in order to measure the changes in reputation and their impact objectively. Moreover, considering the impact of information connectivity, we define the environmental degree r and investigate the effects of environmental degree r and rewiring probability p on cooperation rates. Simulation results demonstrate that the reputation factor and information connectivity have a positive promoting effect on cooperative behavior; conversely, the increase in selection intensity affects cooperation negatively.

Representation of Sociocultural Processes Through Public Relations Tools

Communication capabilities have led to the emergence of new phenomena in mass culture: new methods of advertising, marketing, and public relations, the effects of which have determined the commercial success of companies and the formation of perceptions of their products and services. Mass communication’s informational and expressive power significantly impacts the reputation of certain individuals and political parties, making up the reputational potential of different regions and countries. The national consciousness formation is, of course, not the elimination of already formed concepts, opinions, and habits, but a change in their direction. Public relations maintains harmony between prominent figures of the era, lays the foundation for further development of the national economy, influences public consciousness and consumption, and guides and changes the human subconscious. Therefore, this topic is crucial for our society. The purpose of the article is to characterize the sociocultural processes with the help of public relations. Research methods. The study is based on some general theoretical methods, principles, and approaches. The following methods were used to achieve the goal and solve the research objectives: theoretical, in particular, generalization of theoretical data; comparison; synthesis – to determine the essence and mechanisms of the PR tool that has an impact on sociocultural processes. Scientific novelty. The novelty of this study is to clarify the concept of “public relations” and to highlight the use of public relations tools in the sociocultural sphere. PR is a dynamic development that affects the process of informing people and strengthening and adjusting different views on global issues. Therefore, there is a growing need for information exchange to improve mutual understanding and interaction between different groups of people in different regions and countries. In addition, the growth of mutual information and communication links in the international community necessitates strengthening international security and cooperation. The development of digital technologies facilitates the work of public relations professionals. New tools have emerged to process large amounts of data, facilitate professional life, and automate certain processes. One of the key features of progress in the field of public relations is the automation and sometimes the autonomization of work processes. Conclusions. The activities of public relations in the field of culture as intercultural mass communication are connected with globalization, in particular migration processes. When representatives of different faiths have a sufficient amount of self-organization in the social sphere, ethnic, religious, and intercultural exchanges will naturally take place. With the intensification of immigration processes and the emergence of new media, the need for comprehensive public relations work is becoming a reality, especially in cities where immigrants make up more than a third of the population.

DETEK-AI: A Web-based Deepfake Detection System

AI-driven deepfake bots pose a serious risk to society, security, and trust, which necessitates the development of reliable techniques to detect and mitigate their threat, as their proliferation leads to disinformation, deceit, and harm. Deepfake detection systems can improve cybersecurity, safeguard digital identities, mitigate misinformation, protect reputations of individuals and organizations, assure ethical use of AI technology, empower people and organizations, support regulatory efforts, and contribute to a safer digital ecosystem. Detek AI is a frontrunner in innovative technology aimed at combating deepfake content, safeguarding individuals and organizations from misinformation, and upholding the integrity of online platforms. Keyword— Deepfake Technology, Deepfake Detection, Convolutional Neural Networks, Artificial Intelligence bots, Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence, Face Morphing Detection, Deep Learning, Benford’s Law.

Perceived reputation moderates the link between honor concerns and depressive symptoms

ABSTRACT Prior research has shown that U.S. cultures of honor have higher rates of depression and suicide. While links between honor endorsement and suicide have been established in the literature, a direct test of the primary mechanism underlying this association (reputation damage leading to depression) has not yet been tested. The current study sought to address whether shifts in perceived reputation might be associated with higher levels of depression for honor endorsing individuals. An online sample of 305 participants were tracked across two time points, assessing perceived individual reputation and perceived family reputation, as well as depressive symptoms. Analyses revealed that higher levels of honor concern at Time 1 were linked with higher levels of depressive symptoms at Time 2, but only for those with low perceived reputation – these relationships held while controlling for the stability in reputation and depression across time points, as well as controlling for participants’ gender. Findings provide the first empirical evidence that reputation damage may contribute to detriments in mental health in honor endorsers.

When do stereotypes undermine indirect reciprocity?

Social reputations provide a powerful mechanism to stimulate human cooperation, but observing individual reputations can be cognitively costly. To ease this burden, people may rely on proxies such as stereotypes, or generalized reputations assigned to groups. Such stereotypes are less accurate than individual reputations, and so they could disrupt the positive feedback between altruistic behavior and social standing, undermining cooperation. How do stereotypes impact cooperation by indirect reciprocity? We develop a theoretical model of group-structured populations in which individuals are assigned either individual reputations based on their own actions or stereotyped reputations based on their groups' behavior. We find that using stereotypes can produce either more or less cooperation than using individual reputations, depending on how widely reputations are shared. Deleterious outcomes can arise when individuals adapt their propensity to stereotype. Stereotyping behavior can spread and can be difficult to displace, even when it compromises collective cooperation and even though it makes a population vulnerable to invasion by defectors. We discuss the implications of our results for the prevalence of stereotyping and for reputation-based cooperation in structured populations.

Practice-based methods of bringing to legal liability for anonymous defamation on the Internet and in the media

As of 2024, the need to coordinate generally accepted standards on legal liability for anonymous defamation in the virtual space of the Internet and the media is becoming more relevant in the context of rapid technological development and digital transformation. Therefore, the study aims to identify the most common and effective approaches to bringing liability for the dissemination of false information in the virtual space of the Internet and the media. A variety of scientific and legal methods were used to achieve this goal, in particular comparison, forecasting, generalisation, system analysis, formal legal, formal logical and other methods. The author analyses the controversial aspects related to the protection of individual dignity, honour and commercial reputation of individuals in the context of the Internet, covering the basis for the emergence of legal relations in this area and the practical challenges faced by individuals seeking to protect their rights to dignity and commercial reputation violated by the dissemination of information on the Internet which is considered to be biased or inaccurate. The study shows that most national courts today reject claims aimed at protecting privacy on the Internet and do not recognise the information disseminated through this channel as unreliable, without requiring its refutation. Recommendations that can be implemented in practice to bring individuals to legal liability for false information disseminated anonymously on the Internet and in the media are developed and justified in this study. The author suggests practical ways that can be used to exert legal influence on persons who commit anonymous defamation on the Internet and the media

Визуальный фейк, созданный посредством нейросети: социально-правовые риски и проблемы квалификации

The article provides current examples (as of August 2023) of the spread of visual fakes created as a result of using a neural network. Among the socio-legal risks associated with this phenomenon, the following are considered the presence of an effective tool for creating disinformation; the relative ease of using a neural network; the uncontrolled dissemination of the product; undermining of public confidence in the reliability of images and news; a threat to the honour, dignity, and reputation of individuals. The commitment of many national governments to the idea of prohibitions and restrictions on the dissemination of deliberately false information on the Internet, as opposed to the Network Neutrality movement formed in Western society, is stated. The author describes the difference between two basic approaches to countering fakes, conventionally designated as public-legal and private-legal. Russian legislation combines elements of both approaches – state coercion in the form of punishment with the possibility of filing defamation lawsuits. The analysis of the envisaged measures of civil, administrative and criminal liability is supplemented by an indication of gaps in relation to visual fakes created with the help of a neural network. The author presents her own vision of the formulation of the most important issues in this area and outlines possible vectors for their further analysis.

Sweat, Tears, And Gold In Political Football

Football is a separate form of entertainment for the community, many think that the atmosphere without football sometimes becomes boring. Basically, football represents love where everyone really wants to see their idol players, football clubs and some styles of football. Many people make football as a source of income. However, there are still many political elites who use it as a political arena to enhance the reputation of individuals or groups. Such a model justifies the existence of political actors in football, so that football matches are sometimes like matches between factions or groups that politicize each other.

A Case of the Highest Authority… So What Does It Mean?

There has been for some time a widespread view that anyone under investigation with regard to suspected wrongdoing should be entitled to anonymity prior to charge. Yet no attempt has been made to legislate. The matter is governed currently by the recently developed law of privacy, deriving from such cases as Campbell v MGN Ltd and culminating in the decision of the Supreme Court in ZXC v Bloomberg LP. It seems to be accepted, not only in England but under human rights law generally, that such information should be regarded as "private". This has not seriously been undermined in any of the leading cases. There is surely a serious question as to whether a suspect does indeed have a reasonable expectation that there should be such a blanket over his or her identity. This information is not purely personal. It relates to suspected wrongdoing – information which legitimately concerns not only any individual under suspicion but also, for example, "victims" and no doubt other fellow citizens interested in getting to the truth and in the administration of justice. Naturally, if a suspect's name leaks out, that individual's reputation may be seriously damaged. Some take the view that compensation should be recoverable specifically for injury to reputation – even though the claim would not be brought in defamation. Yet privacy and libel are distinct causes of action with different purposes to fulfil. If damages are to be sought to vindicate reputation, it is hard to see why a defendant should not have available the traditional defences and other principles applying in defamation. If a claimant wishes to demonstrate that the allegations are false, as well as intrusive, why should he not be subject to the same disciplines and risks as one who sues in libel?

When tainted money should fund public goods: fundraising professional and public moral preferences.

Philanthropy is essential to public goods such as education and research, arts and culture, and the provision of services to those in need. Providers of public goods commonly struggle with the dilemma of whether to accept donations from morally tainted donors. Ethicists also disagree on how to manage tainted donations. Forgoing such donations reduces opportunities for societal well-being and advancement; however, accepting them can damage institutional and individual reputations. Half of professional fundraisers have faced tainted donors, but only around a third of their institutions had relevant policies (n = 52). Here, we draw on two large samples of US laypeople (ns = 2,019; 2,566) and a unique sample of experts (professional fundraisers, n = 694) to provide empirical insights into various aspects of tainted donations that affect moral acceptability: the nature of the moral taint (criminal or morally ambiguous behavior), donation size, anonymity, and institution type. We find interesting patterns of convergence (rejecting criminal donations), divergence (professionals' aversion to large tainted donations), and indifference (marginal role of anonymity) across the samples. Laypeople also applied slightly higher standards to universities and museums than to charities. Our results provide evidence of how complex moral trade-offs are resolved differentially, and can thus motivate and inform policy development for institutions dealing with controversial donors.

The impact of current and historical reputation with non-uniform change on cooperation in spatial public goods game

In the complex human social environment, reputation plays an important role in interpersonal communication. Normally, individuals pay attention to their neighbors’ current and historical reputations during strategy learning, and the variation of individual reputation over time is often non-uniform. This paper proposes a new spatial public goods game model that involves current and historical reputation. An exponential function of the rounds in which the individual continuously maintains the cooperative or defective strategy unchanged is defined to reflect the change of the individual reputation. And two discount coefficients involving five parameters are introduced to the imitation probability of strategy learning. Simulation results indicate that high sensitivities of individuals to her/his own reputation, to the reputation of her/his neighbors, and to changes in neighbors’ historical reputations are all beneficial for the cooperative behavior of the system. And individual behavior of paying attention to changes in neighbors’ historical reputation is also beneficial for the cooperation, but attention to more historical reputation changes in neighbors does not further promote cooperative behavior. The sensitivity of the population to individual historical information about strategy has little impact on the cooperative behavior of the system.

Peculiarities of civil law protection of honor, dignity and business reputation on the internet as objects of the right of an individual to information regarding himself

The article defines the concept of information about an individual as an object of civil rights. The author analyzes the state of legislative regulation of the relationship between the concepts of “personal information” and “personal data”. The basic principles of information relations are highlighted. The issues of the right to privacy in the context of technological progress and digitalization are outlined.The author examines and analyzes a whole range of controversial issues which arise for both civil theorists and practicing lawyers and attorneys-at-law (barristers) on the issues of protection of honor, dignity, and business reputation of individuals on the Internet, including the grounds for legal relations around protection of an individual’s honor, dignity, and business reputation. The article provides a general overview of the conceptual framework and theoretical foundations of the legal definition of honor, dignity, and business reputation of an individual. Particular attention is paid to the issue of defining negative and unreliable information, as well as the legal nature of the appearance and dissemination of such information on the Internet. Also, author research the conceptual foundations of the mechanism of protection of individual’s rights to honor, dignity, and business reputation. The author also pays attention to identifying the shortcomings of the legal regulation of the protection of these rights.The article highlights the specifics of practical issues arising for an individual who is trying to protect personal non-property rights to honor, dignity, and business reputation, which are violated because of posting information on the Internet which, in the individual’s opinion, is not unreliable. To this end, author has reviewed and analyzed several different court decisions (cases) of various instances (from local courts up to the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights).The author makes a logical and consistent conclusion that such legal categories as honor, dignity and business reputation belong to the objects of the right of an individual to information regarding himself. The author offers general recommendations on the choice of legal instruments and methods for protecting an individual’s honor, dignity, and business reputation on the Internet.

Too much or less? The effect of financial literacy on resident fraud victimization

Fraud not only damages the wealth and reputation of individuals, but also poses a threat to social security. Although the relationship between financial literacy and resident fraud victimization has been discussed in recent studies, previous research has ignored the ways in which residents make psychological decisions when faced with fraud, and findings have not been agreed upon. The purpose of this study is whether and how financial literacy influences fraud victimization in the risky decision-making process. Under dual process theories, this study constructs regression models using the survey sample (N = 16352) from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS). Our findings show that there is a U-shaped relationship between financial literacy and fraud victimization, and that this relationship is heterogeneous across gender. Further analysis found a moderating effect of Subjective Risk Attitudes (SRA) on this relationship, with risk preferences causing the U-shaped relationship between financial literacy and resident fraud victimization to gradually shift to a monotonic positive relationship. In addition, we consider the problem of endogeneity, which has been neglected in previous studies, and construct a new instrumental variable to address endogeneity. Our study provides some new insights into the behavioral analysis of residents' economic decisions.

Deepfakes and Harm to Women

As deepfake technologies become more sophisticated and accessible to the broader online community, their use puts women participating in digital spaces at increased risk of experiencing violence online and abuse. In a ‘post-truth’ era, the ability to discern what is real and what is fake allows malevolent actors to manipulate public opinion or ruin the social reputation of individuals to wider audiences. While the scholarly research on the topic is sparse, this study explored the harm women have experienced in technology and deepfakes. Results of the study suggest that deepfakes are a relatively new method to deploy gender-based violence and erode women’s autonomy in their on-and-offline world. This study highlights the unique harms for women that are felt on both an individual and systemic level and the necessity for further inquiry into online harm through deepfakes and victims’ experiences.

The “industrial halo” and its impact on the assessment of corporate reputation

PurposeThe gap that this research attempts to fill is to analyse the explanatory factor “industry” when assessing the reputation of a corporate group. In other words, this research attempts to demonstrate the impact of the “industrial halo” on the assessment of corporate reputation, given that, to date, the academic literature has not considered industry as an explanatory variable in the assessment of the reputation of private companies.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 43 Spanish companies was used to analyse the relationship between the reputation of firms as measured by the Merco Empresas index, and the industries to which they belong, after controlling for company performance, size, turnover, public recognition of their leadership, and corporate responsibility. This involved conducting a cross-sectional analysis of the relationship between the variables for each year in the time period from 2005 to 2016. The available data were taken from the firms' annual financial reports and websites, as well as from the Merco.FindingsThe paper shows the existence of industrial halos that account for the corporate reputation of businesses in Spain. It is also shown that industrial halos are not permanent over time, and that they tend to occur in years of crisis.Research limitations/implicationsIt would have been desirable for this study to have had sufficient data to include other industries, but this was not possible. As for possible extensions, in addition to expanding the period considered, other analytical techniques, such as panel data models, could be applied to allow comparison with the results obtained here.Practical and social implicationsThe results of this study have some practical implications. Firstly, firms that publish corporate reputation rankings should be aware of the distortion that the industrial halo can produce, especially in times of uncertainty, and seek to correct for it in their measurements. And secondly, corporate groups themselves should assume that the reputation of the industry affects their individual reputation, and consequently, they should see the other companies in the industry not only as competitors but also as “reputational allies”. They should therefore make collective efforts to improve in this respect, especially in the face of reputational crises.Originality/valueThis paper provides a better understanding of the relationship between the reputation of a company and the industry to which it belongs, and of its permanence over time. This relationship has been little studied in the Spanish market to date.

Heterogeneity of strategy persistence promotes cooperation in spatial prisoner’s dilemma game

Heterogeneity plays a critical role in promoting cooperation for various evolutionary systems, which has received widespread attention and research from relevant scholars. Additionally, reputation has a significant impact on an individual’s decision-making, and scholars have proposed reputation-based evolutionary mechanisms to promote cooperation. Most of these mechanisms measure reputation as part of an individual’s payoff, and influencing the individual’s decision-making. However, the influence of reputation on the individual’s decision-making should be more through heterogeneous way. Here we propose the heterogeneity of strategy persistence evolutionary mechanism, in which the heterogeneity factor and the number of strategy persistence together influence the evolution of cooperation. We measure the reputation of individuals by the number of strategy persistence. The proposed mechanism effectively highlights the heterogeneity of an individual’s reputation and has shown to be successful in promoting cooperation.

${N}$-Player Trust Game With Second-Order Reputation Evaluation in the Networked Population

Trust has played a significant role in the maintenance of social links, which has attracted a great deal of concern from a diverse range of fields including economics, finance, and social science. In this article, we investigate the effect of second-order reputation evaluation on trust game dilemma and explore how individuals establish an indirect reciprocal relationship by adjusting their reputation. First, a novel <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${N}$</tex-math></inline-formula> -player trust game is proposed by combining the payoff-driven and reputation-driven update processes. Second, four classical “second-order” norms are introduced to evaluate individual reputation, which will be judged by both their own strategies and the reputation status of their counterparts. Finally, through extensive simulations on different network topologies, we find that untrustworthy trustees would change their strategies with the help of a reputation signal. Meanwhile, the structured population presents a nonmonotonic cooperation trend with the increase of reputation strength in the mixed imitation process. Besides, there is an optimal interval that can promote the continuous emergence of trust between investors and trustworthy trustees. The current results are of high importance to understand the emergence of mutually beneficial symbiosis of biological groups inside an unknown environment.

Co-evolution of reputation-based preference selection and resource allocation with multigame on interdependent networks

In nature and human society, individual's reputation and selection of interaction objects play a very important role in explaining the emergence and maintenance of cooperation. Meanwhile, how to make resources allocation more evenly and properly has attracted extensive attention. In this article, based on the multi-game mode of the interdependent network, a reputation-based preference selection mechanism is proposed, where individual's reputation is used as its weight to redefine its individual's fitness and dynamically adjusted. And, the cooperative behavior and dynamic characteristics of different individuals in the system from different perspectives are studied. Moreover, limited resources are also leaded into the network, which has an impact on the reputation of agents. Based on this model, the interdependent strength, reputation, sucker's payoff and strategy choice from different angles is deeply studied, and corresponding evolution dynamics are also discussed. As the results, the optimal interdependent strength is found. Besides, preferential parameter and sucker's payoff not only improve cooperation rate, but also affect the resource allocation of different individuals in the system. Finally, we hope that it can provide some theoretical references for some real systems through this work.

The Phenomenon of Fake News (Hoax) in Mass Communication: Causes, Impacts, and Solutions

challenge faced in the digital era. The spread of fake news can have detrimental effects, such as disrupting public opinion, influencing democratic processes, creating social chaos, and damaging the reputation of individuals or organizations. The main causes for the emergence of fake news include technological factors, political motivation, economic gain, ignorance or lack of media literacy, and psychological factors such as the need for validation or sensation. Advances in technology and social media have accelerated the spread of fake news and complicated efforts to contain it. It is important to tackle the fake news phenomenon with a holistic approach. This involves the active role of individuals, news organizations, journalists, social media platforms, government agencies, and society as a whole. Increasing media literacy, accurate verification of facts, ethical journalism, cooperation with social media platforms, proper regulation, and prompt response to fake news are important steps in dealing with this phenomenon. The impact of fake news is very detrimental and can disrupt social stability, public trust, and information integrity. Therefore, collective efforts and awareness of the importance of fighting fake news are very important in building a healthy and trustworthy mass communication environment.